Former Second Lady Karen Pence is traveling around the country, talking about faith and her new book. On Wednesday, she stopped by Yorba Linda to tell personal stories to a deeply attentive audience.
And while Pence’s speech to an intimate audience of around 70 people in the East Room at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library had no mention of her husband’s performance as a presidential candidate, several voters there said her deep-rooted faith and behind-the-scenes stories as a political spouse were more than enough to give former Vice President Mike Pence a second look.
Karen Pence, donning a royal blue two-piece pantsuit, read excerpts from her newly released title “When It’s Your Turn to Serve: Experiencing God’s Grace in His Calling for Your Life,” to attendees in a silent room.
“Walk with me on part of the journey that I traveled,” she read. “The life of a political wife is not as glamorous as you might think. There were times where I simply had to call up a friend and vent. Throughout my childhood and early adult years … my faith grew deeper and deeper. For me, the Lord was the one who was constant, and through it all, I tried to take the road less traveled.”
Mike Pence is polling far below former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Golden State in the race for the White House, according to a recent Public Policy Institute survey of likely California Republican voters. Of those surveyed, just 7% said they would vote for Pence if the primary were held now compared to 48% for Trump and 14% for DeSantis.
At the Nixon Library Wednesday, several attendees thumbed through Karen Pence’s book, released on Sept. 26, before she arrived; others sat quietly, waiting for the former second lady to show up.
She got a standing ovation when she walked into the ballroom shortly after 7 p.m.; she got another when she finished reading.
“I thought the speech was great. It gave you more insight to her as a person, (and) some of the little tidbits that she shared, I would never have known unless she shared it right now,” said Kathy Morgan, a Fullerton resident. “It definitely put Mike Pence in a more positive light. Knowing her and getting a little more insight into the family and his rise through politics was good to know.”
During her hourlong book talk, Karen Pence told many stories, one detailing how her husband’s 2000 campaign for Congress came to be. Mike Pence had run for Congress twice already, in 1988 and 1990, losing both times to Democratic incumbent Philip Sharp.
“The congressional seat we had run for twice before and lost became open. Now we felt we had to consider running again,” Karen Pence said. “Life was comfortable and we had let that dream go — but perhaps this is why God was bringing this back into our lives again. It was a sense of service and calling.”
Karen Pence, a watercolor artist, had saved up all of the money she’d earned from selling her paintings, and on Mike Pence’s 40th birthday, she surprised him with a visit to a Colorado dude ranch.
“He loves riding horses,” Karen Pence said. “We rode to the top of the bluff in the Teddy Roosevelt National Forest. That whole week, we had been struggling with the decision: Should we run for Congress again? We got off the horses, and Mike said, ‘Karen, we have to make a decision.’”
They understood the demands of campaigning, she said, the time commitment and the personal financial sacrifices it takes.
“Mike is a romantic at heart — you might not know that,” Karen Pence said. “We looked ahead and saw two red-tailed hawks rising on the wind’s current. Mike said, ‘You see them? Those are like us.’ I said, ‘If those hawks are like us, then should we run?’ This time, instead of ambition driving us, we should allow God to lift us up wherever he wants us to serve with no flapping.”
And “no flapping” has been the couple’s mantra ever since, Karen Pence said.
When Mike Pence was elected to Congress and she became a “congressional spouse,” Karen Pence said she sent emails to supporters, asking them to pray for whatever the topic was in Congress on any given day.
“Today, it might be, please pray for the House of Representatives. Please pray for Kevin McCarthy. Please pray for leadership,” she said, referring to Tuesday’s historic vote to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, from the speaker’s chair.
Victoria Anderson said she enjoyed the former second lady’s anecdotes and how she became “very personable.” She’ll be giving Mike Pence another look, said Anderson of Fullerton.
“I love that she’s a person of faith, and she’s not afraid to say it and it seemed to inform every single decision,” she said, adding that the talk “just led me to think about their family and the way they make decisions.”
The Pences also draw inspiration from a much smaller animal, the honeybee, which is a big theme in her book. On Wednesday, Karen Pence left the audience with several bee facts.
“Sometimes what my team would do as I traveled with Mike … we would see bees and see beehives all over the world and taste the honey,” Karen Pence said. “I put a bee fact on every chapter that goes along with everything that I talk about in that chapter, for example, the chapter on secret service talks about guard bees.”
“Did you know that in their lifespan each honeybee creates only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey? Bees don’t immediately see the fruit of their labor,” she said. “Like the bee’s journey, mine was going to require diligence, patience, trust, and I would end up traveling quite far and wide too. Bees have been a constant in my life, teaching me not only about myself but about God’s creations and his plans for me.”
Anaheim resident Victoria Greene, a Mike Pence supporter, said Karen Pence’s talk “makes you want to go out there and do something for people.”
“I’m really glad I came — I didn’t know much about the book and I’m looking forward to reading it,” Greene said.
